If you observed the reactions all over the internet back in November when the first trailer for Detective Pikachu dropped, you’ll most likely have noticed that for some people, the Pokémon franchise is what you might call a Very Big Deal. Expect those people to be very happy with the latest trailer for Warner Brothers’ wannabe movie franchise starter,1 as it shows off a lot of new, beautifully realized, fan favorite Pokémon. But if you’re not one of those people and wish to not seem out of the loop with your Pokéloving friends,2 let me help you by presenting a guide to all the Pokémon on display in this new trailer, with glossy screencaps to boot.
This, my friends, is the titular Detective Pikachu. All Pokémon are primarily known by the name of their spieces – though you can give them nicknames in the games – so he is just one of the many Pikachu that presumably roam the film’s world. Not all Pikachu are voiced by Ryan Reynolds, practicing detectives or able to talk, but this certainly is.
Up next we have some Joltik crawling along electrical wires. Joltik are basically small spiders made out of lightning, who evolve into tarantula’s made out of lightning.3 So to all the arachnophobes out there, next time you’re spooked by a spider suddenly crawling out from under your desk, consider it a silver lining you’re not living in a world with Pokémon, where it could’ve been an electric spider.
This lovely hairy duck creature/annex Mexican stereotype is a Ludicolo. They’re party-loving beasts who, according to the Pokémon fanwiki Bulbapedia, grow stronger when they hear festive music. So really, they’re just your aunt when she’s having a little too much fun at a family party.
Pictured here is the precise moment when I realized this might’ve been a bad idea. Because, boy, there really are a lot of Pokémon in this one. But let’s power through, the big robot looking guys are Golurks, big suits of armor designed by an ancient civilization. They were introduced in the much maligned Generation V, which also featured such stellar creature designs as: an ice cream cone, a chandelier and a garbage bag. So needless to say, they’re kind of a deep pull. The small turtle looking thing walking next to that business man is a far more obvious choice; that’s Squirtle, one of the three starter Pokémon you were able to pick in the series first games and therefore one of the most iconic critters. There’s also what looks to be a Vulpix, a fire fox and a bunch of Growlithe,4 fire dogs, and their evolution Arcanine, a bigger fire dog. To put you into the headspace of the Growlithes in this scene, picture yourself, a Human, walking down an alley and at the alley stands Dwayne Johnson, a bigger Human.
Another busy shot, here we have a Machamp doing traffic control, a Snorlax – a big, lazy bastard whose main function in the games is to obscure a road you have to travel – taking a nap and a Pancham crossing the street. There’s also Jigglypuff, but we’ll get to those in a bit.
Up next we have three very brief consecutive shots of Pokémon, so let’s tackle them at once.
The big, mean looking purple dog is a Snubbull. Bulbapedia informs me that they are saddened that people are frightened by their appearance, so if you just looked at that and thought “yikes”, consider yourself an asshole. The reptile looking thing with a bulb on its back is Bulbasaur, another one of the aforementioned first generation starter Pokémon. And last, but certainly not least is god’s mistake, otherwise known as Lickitung. Let’s not dignify it by giving it more attention, that only makes it stronger.
Here we have two critters who were already in full view in the previous trailer, so if you’ve watched that, you’re at least familiar with their style. Draped behind Suki Waterhouse’s back is a Psyduck; a, you guessed it, psychic duck that constantly has a headache and feels very confused, perfectly embodying how we all feel in 2019. The pink blob with the daffy swirl of hair is a Jigglypuff, a being whose main deal is that it sings beautiful pop songs that make people fall asleep. Which is presumably why the fella behind him has his lights out, though he might also have just been drunk under the table.
The loudmouths on display besides this DJ booth are fittingly named Loudreds. After this shot, a shot that goes by too quick for me to be able to grab a non-blurry screencap showcases a Blastoise – a big tortoise with two guns on its back that is the final evolution of Squirtle which we have discussed before, – laying waste to some Gengars – ghosts that always sport real shit-eating grins.
Speaking of shots that go by too quickly, I also wasn’t able to grab a decent screencap of this Cubone, but I still felt a real need to include it, given that now I have an excuse to tell you that it didn’t pick that skull it’s wearing on its head at a student performance of Hamlet. No, every Cubone wears on its head the skull of its deceased mother. For years, I had to live with that knowledge, and now so do you.
Here we have an Eevee, a small fox-like Pokémon that is mostly noteworthy for having the most evolutions out of all 8095 existing Pokémon. Depending on the conditions in which it evolves, it has eight possible new forms, in the above shot it appears to be evolving into Flareon, its fire type evolution. But we’ll save that for advanced class. The statues behind it show Dialga and Palkia, two Legendary – meaning: rare and very powerful – Pokémon that control time and space, respectively. Normally this is where I’d say that it’s very unlikely that two Legendary Pokémon would actually show up in the flesh in this film, as the Legendaries is where the Pokémon lore gets truly buckwild, but well… we’ll get to that.
This scary bugger is an Aipom, a monkey-like Pokémon who usually looks a lot friendlier. And no, that hand behind it is not a man he just killed grasping for a last lease on life, no that is in fact, it’s tail. Yes, he could probably punch you with that. Hell, he probably will.
Here we have a Charizard, who as you can see, is a big dragon. It’s the final evolution of Charmender, the third of the aforementioned Generation I Starter Pokémon. A Charizard also shows up earlier in the trailer besides some gangster-y type to up his intimidation factor, but I thought this shot looked a lot cooler, and I make the rules here.
And now this, people, is what we call a Big One. Pictured here is Mewto, one of the aforementioned Legendary Pokémon. And while Mewtwo’s backstory is not as crazy as some of the other Legendaries,6 it’s still pretty wild. Mewtwo is a failed clone of Mew, another, much less dangerous Legendary. It possesses masterful psychic powers, has zero compassion and is most notable in the franchise for being the villain in the first Pokémon movie, where it killed the teenage protagonist who had to be resurrected by the tears of his own Pikachu. You know, for kids! It seems safe to say that Mewtwo will fill in a similar antagonistic role here, though whether it will also engage in teenage boy-killing will remain to be seen.
With the trailers big reveal out of the way, all that remains are two Pokémon who also have already been pretty prominent in the marketing campaign. First we have an army of Greninja, which are ninja frogs, and therefore cool as hell. Last is Mr. Mime, which is, shocker, a very creepy humanoid-looking mime with big, scary horns. Despite the name, 50% of all Mr. Mimes are female, so that’s something fun to mull over.
There we have it, all the Pokémon that I spotted in this trailer. If you think this is a lot, this is probably only a fraction of the creatures that we’ll actually see in the film. Because, let me remind you, there are 804 of the blighters and if the filmmakers can’t fit everyone of them in, you can rest assured they’ll at least try. Feel free to send me a thank you note if I’ve now converted you to Pokémon fandom, or a very angry note if I’ve missed a Pokémon. And be sure to check back around May 10th, when Pokémon: Detective Pikachu hits theaters.
- And I don’t think they have to worry, as this thing will likely make all the money in the world
- Or with the Lewton Bus Slack, this one’s for you, Ryan
- Though they also have some sort of fur in this form, which is confusing
- within the canon of the tv show Growlithe often serve as police pokemon, thus the inclusion here
- Yes, really.
- It is not, for example, the creator of the Pokémon universe
